Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	earl_n	john_n	king_n	50,169	5	4.1692	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77287	True excellency of God and his testimonies, and our nationall lawes against titular excellency. Or, A letter to the General his excellency Thomas Lord Fairfax, with a complaint and charg against tyrannicall Whitchcock the Governour of Winsor for arbitrarily, designingly and maliciously walking contrary to the Scriptures of God, and the laws and liberties of the people. / From Captain VVilliam Bray at his un-Christian indurance there.	Bray, William, 17th cent.	1649 (1649)	Wing B4315; Thomason E571_32; ESTC R206130	11,419	8

True Excellency of GOD and his Testimonies and our Nationall Lawes against TITULAR EXCELLENCY Or A LETTER To the GENERAL his Excellency THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX With a Complaint and Chart against Tyrannicall Whitchcock the Governour of Winsor for arbitra ily d●fig●●rly and maliciously walking contrary to the Scripture● of God and the laws and Liberties of the People From Captain VVilliam bray at his un-Christian Indurance there Prov. 21.3 To doe Justice and Judgment is more a●ceptable to the Lord then sacrifice Prov. 27. Open Rebuke is bet●er then secret love To Levell all to LAVV we must To Levell all to LUST'S not just And I do exclaime and Cry out unto Thomas Lord Fairfax to perfo●me engagement to the people while it is cal●'d to day and unto all the Officers and Souldiers of the Army and other the Free People of the Nation that truly own God Scripture and Law Murther Murther Murther I say Murther Sir I Had thoughts never to have written to you more but love to my Country and Tyranny justly provokes me I wll once more see whether the Lord or common reason the latter of which hath prevailed w●th Pagans will prevail with you as for the former if the Lord hath manifested himself to you surely you will then be won to righteousnesse and justice and if principles of neither will prevail you may quickly judge whether you are a Christian or a reasonable mans I know the wise God is able to give and restore principles of nature and ri●hteousnesse though by your conversation you act as if there was no such things dwell●ng in you To do impartiall judgment and justice is sutable to scripture and the infallible evident commands thereof and judgment denounced against the violators of justice It is the reason why authority was constituted Isa 30.18 Isa 61.8 Exod. 18.21 23. 26 Deut. 1.16 17. 16.19 25.1 2 Chron. 9.6 7. Isa 2.23 24. Ier. 5.28 29. ● 22.16 17 18. Amos 5 12. 6.12 14. Micha 39.11 Zach. 18.16 17 Will you praunce upon the Scriptures of God ●ow I am by force a Slave a Prisoner in an an illegall Goal in walking in an undoubted Christian naturall Parliamentary way of appeal and this is destructive to a stifeling and strangling the foundations of nature of humane societies of justice of Scripture of the c●pit●ll obligations of God to man man to God and one man to another as you may see in my Book Intituled Innocency and Bloud of the Slaine Souldiers and People mightily complaining and crying out to the Lord and the people of the land against those Forty Knights and Burg●sses that sit or that you have left in the House of Commons and in that you may see the cruelty exercised against a freeman of England at large If any the people of the land or a nation have lost the right of appeal against you or any man for their eight yeers bloud and treasure then that man or men must needs be a Tyrant I am deal with just as if a child should ask bread of a father and he should give him a Serpent this is the ●●ing and poison of our miseries and casting out of ●ut fundamentall liberties and safeties this is unaccou●tablenesse indeed this is idol●zing of persons indeed and yet you have out off the King and told the people that he was an Idoll But to me there is but one God and Father of whom are all things c. This is lawfulnesse this is as much as in you lies to be supreame to God to nature to Scripture Did we fight for our Laws and Lib●rties and is there no Law Did your House as you may call it Vote since they cut off the King that you would maintaine the fundamentall laws and is there no law shed blood for law and is there no law Are not you one of the murtherers then if no law Could the King or the Kings party transgresse if there was no law Will you make the Apostle a lyar for he saith Where there is no Law there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 Truly Sir M●ster Peters your Chaplain did never read Peter throughly if he hath he may weep bitterly Was not Christ the head of Saints the only Son of the most High Crucified and butchered by meer subtilty conjoyned with force Contrary to Law Reason God and Nature And the designe of God from eternity did not take away their blood-guiltinesse so as to make them without blemish and the murther no murther Sir the souldier● though they were may be commanded had a hand in the innocent blood aswell as Pilate and the chief Priests Souldiers are some of the best of men or some of the basest of men Did the Parliament invite the King to bloud for their Laws and Liberties and did they desire the King to rely for his security upon the Laws and affections of the people and will not you do what you would have had him do with many other eminent and transcendent expressions to maintaine the Laws and Liberties of the people which were violated as they declared 1 par of the Parli Dec. p 8 9 10 11 12 13 16. 38. 140. 150 151. 200 209 259 266 267. 272. 278. 323. 464. 466. 473 687. 689. 692 693 694. 697. 698 699 700. 702 703. 710 711. 721 722 723. 727. 729. All these are worthy perusall It is the greatest evidence of an unchristian spirit that can be to maintaine the principle and practise of force against reason Justice Law and Scripture Law Reason and Scripture should be above force and force should be alwayes a servant to just Law to obey the commands of it against such whomsoever as would make force supreame to Law and Justice and no authority is to command any thing unjust 1 part of the Book of Dec. of Parl. p. 207. 690. Master Cook in King Charles his Case pag. 23. For by it authority doth break all the reins of order and government and become Tyrants as Master Solicitor St. Iohn said against the Earle of Strafford Wolves Bears Polcats Foxes beasts of prey not men not Christians but capitall murtherers chief Robbers of Nations of Families of Persons pray Sir have a care stand and make a hault and acknowledge Lord the Scripture and the Law above your selfe and your fawning proselytes The Parliament charged the King in the first part of the Book of Declarations pag. 689 693. That he intended to govern the Kingdom and People by the violent Laws Martiall And say they accurs●d be that advice to ways of force and let all the people say Amen The King told the Parliament they intended such things themselves as they charged him with O Lord arise and judge By the Law of England such was the justice of the Law in the former and late King his Reigne whom you have cut off That if Catile be destroyed and impounded in a Castle or Fortresse and withheld against gage or pledges and if they be solemnly demanded by

the Sheriffe and not delivered c. The Castle or Fortresse shall be beaten down without recovery and all the damages that the people hath sustained in his beasts c. shall be restored him by the Lord or by him that took the beasts if he have whereof and if he have not whereof he shall have it of the Lord See Lieut. Col. Lilburn that Patriot in his Bo●k called the Peoples Prerogative Bro. Rio● 2. 3. 52 H. 3. 3. 13. Ed. 1. 32. V.N.B. fol. 43. 44 Regist fol. 85 52. H. 3. 21 Regi fol. 81 fitz N. B fo 68. F. But now there is not so much c●re of mankind though Christ declares Gods providentiall care of humane nature of the h●lt of a mans head nor mentioning my engagement unto bloud and faithfulnesse for Laws and Liberies as there is provision for beasts no not that provision that the laws of Nature the Land and especially Christianity provides O brave Representative Justice as you and they call your selves Oh brave General of an English Army for Laws and Liberties who hath declared against arbitrariness under his hand in several Declarations to King and Parliament and more then that violently opposed his Lords and Masters and Benefactors under a pretence of Justice If the meer being of Policy alias Knavery and Force is in this our generation good and just then the cruelty and murther of the Lord Jesus was good and just which any honest man or Christian abhors to imagine then the murther committed upon other saints and servants of God was just then resolved designing robbers and murtherers upon the high-way are holy and just men then the Kings cause was good and would have been as good as yours every whit if he had been but Conquerour and yet you arraigned him at your Bar for a Tyrant a Traytor and a Murtherer But this way of unrighteousnesse I had much jealousie in my spirit before the Kings blood was taken away would and will come to passe dest●uctive to the Laws of God Nature and the Land And indeed when I came unto you from the Tro●ps being with others sent with an assurance from them to your Excellency they did by me assure you that if there was cord alnesse justice and impartiality and the laws of settlement justice and freedom to the Nation in futur as you had declared you aimed at they would if God and Nature c●lled for it spill their blo●d as water to accomplish those ends for the Nation under your conduct And truly Sir I must professe as in the presence of the Lord I was as cordial to you and your person i● order and subordination to that supreme end and the honour and love I b●ar to m● God and my Country as to my own body and spirit But I must confesse my judgment was the Tryall of the King would not be so justifiable bu● by a new speedy and free Parliament as I told one of your Secretaries and divers others in the Gallery at White-hall and I looked upon the Laws Rights Freedoms and safeties of the peop●e to be that alone that would justly satisfie them make ● good issue of the Wa● and make a generall peace in the Nation according to mutuall agreement and concord in common and plain principles of Scrip●ures and common reason as Mr Solicitor Cook said against King Charles in his Case pag. 22. But I went again suddenly into the country and having not been there long I had information of the break●ng and rending of t●e House of Commons part of which was done before I went out of Town and the declared pretence was bruited abroad that they joyned in the Scotish Invasion and a little after that I heard of the erect●on of a Court of Justice and of the resolution of the Grand●es intention to try the King before a new Parliament and before they went through the Rights of the People which when I he●rd made me fetch a deep and hearty sigh in my own spirit for my Country to consider it and what insecurity there was to the peoples Rights Justice Freedom and Peace which the Army spake so much of in the Remonstrance from St. Albans the 16 of Novemb. last against the King and Parliament declaring against the inordinate temper of spirit to bre●k the bonds of Law and Magistracy and to fly above the due bounds of Order and Government against interest and that the King would not stop or bogle at principles of ●evenge falshood cruelty faith or oath pretences will power oppression corrupt forms without law or rooted in the Law against awfull reverence and idolizing of persons offices and dispensations to fit for Ecclesiasticall and Civil Tyranny against vain-glory hypocrisie Tyranny and in summ of all against arbitrary power in any over the peoples Laws Liberties and Properties against the hardship of imprisonment used to Patriots that had appeared to assert the common Liberties the severall designations of some to the slaughter some to exile others to prisons all to the misery of one sort or other and that the Kings injustice and arbitrariness was the cause of the War and innocent blood and of all the evill consequents and concomitants thereunto and not the oppressed with other enamouring and unparallell'd language and expressions pages 4. 10. 14. 16. 17. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 26. 29. 30. 31. 32. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 65. 66. 67. 68. 70. See also the former Declarations pag. 10. 14. 39. 40. 41. 42. c. Mr Cooks Book against King Charles pag. 37. 38. 42. c. Let the Lord and the people that are unbiased Judge whether they do not ●●e●d in th● s●me steps But the main ●●●n and strain of my affections was to the Rights of the people is the Lord Almighty knows and the security of the Laws and Liberties and the Lord bears me wi●nesse I have yet stood to that against all temptations of proffered honou● or revenge and ●o I trust shall as I have shewed in my Book her● re●ited I do n●t sp●ak this n●ither so as to r●pine against the mighty h●nd of the Lord in that the Kings life was taken away or to stir up any heart-burnings in any against you or any other for I do abhor it though man many times may do things out of wicked and unholy ends which the Lord doth in time discover for I am satisfied in my conscience and judgment a before the Lord and I will decl●re it though I were to perish that I beleev● the King was guilty of the blood of the people and the violation of the peoples Laws and Liberties But your guil●iness will be far more if you apost●tize and defer● that supreme end even the just Laws and Liberties of the Nation for which we fought and were formerly made and also the inlargement of ou● freedoms and safetie And for the enjoyment of justice and freedom I can live I thank the Lord my strength the m●st High with satisfaction under any Government whether M●n●●chy

gods Tyrants cannot abide Law and Settlement and their cruelty is their ruine Just Authority is to lift up the afflicted and oppressed and by their authority to bridle domesticall wrong to strengthen the diseased to heal that which is sick to binde up that which is broken to bring again that which is driven away to seek that which is lost and not with force and crueltie to rule Ezek. 34.4 Therefore I do in the name of the Lord of Hosts and the most excellent God the God of Justice and Mercy demand Freedom from my illegall Bonds and reparations therefore to the honour of the Lords Justice the acknowledging of his name and to the keeping of your Faith and the honour of our Laws and Liberties and lay you self at the foot of God Scriptures and Laws And to this end and purpose that the Lord may be acknowledged in Judgment I do propose that M. Cook your Orator against the King may be made Judge betwixt us and may have an Oath given him of impartiall Judgment without fear favor or affection and that you may choose any whom you will so many to so many of my friends of the Army or out to be my Antagonist in a publick audience and writers on both sides and I wil engage to prove the dealings with me are illegal barbarous and Tyrannical contrary to the Laws of God and Nature the nation the scripture your own declarations the declarations of Parliament and all the Capital obligations of justice and mercy that ever I heard of in the world And though you have given him lately much worldly estate and honour yet I will trust the Lord with the innnocency and splendor of my cause and I hope the Lord will make righteousnesse in his Spirit Supream to all honour glory and safety according to his own word● so I rest From my illegall cruel arbitrary imprisonment under an unnaturall and unholy Ty●ant in Windsor Castle The Lord his weake and unworthy servant and in the peoples cause William Bray My Dedication and Supplication to God my Maker and Father OH Lord Thou who art indeed excellent t●e great Commander of all the world who turnest all thing upside down who hast the hearts of all men in thy hand and canst make the greatest persecutors and affl●cting powers of darknesse stoop to thee Oh Lord my God and Father great are my enemies one who is called Excellency But oh Lord it is thou alone art Excellency faith●uln●ss● and truth and the others are Crowel Ireton H●s●●rig Harrison and Whitchcock under those Tyrannicall hand I am my cause is the cause of thy people the generall cause of Justice and Freedom Thou knowest the sincerity of my spirit oh Lord my enemie● are in great honour and power by the peoples blood labours and treasure If it be thy holy will let them acknowledg thee God of the whole earth whose name and power hath made great changes in the world Let them in ther conversations acknowledge the Scriptures and testimonies of thy selfe the laws and liberties of thy people without respect of persons If not oh Lord put a hook in their nostrils and a bridle in their jaws that they may not use wicked and crafty policy and the treasure of thy people make them destroy one another against their laws and liberties Uniteth people that are sincere to thee and one to another in righteousnesse and judgement make up thy J●wels and shew some w●● or other some evident testimony of love to thy people against the bloody designs of thine and their enemies under what cloak or forme soever they appear in the world keep me stedfast unto thy self against a●l the bloody intentions of my close politick and mighty enemies and l●t thy name and honour be ex●lted as indeed it is whether in persecution or freedom And if oh Lord they have such murtherous thoughts towards me as O Lord thou knowest their actions are hitherunto wicked enough and if they bring forth the wickedest and extreamest into action O Lord let me continue constant in thy strength unto the de●th and make me willingly to imbrace my condition and give testimony to thy self and to the testimonies of thy self in Scripture in spirit in my own heart the testimony of my enemies themselves and the enemies of our Lawes and Liberties Purge me also O Lord oh purge me whilst I am in this mortality and let me dye before I die So prayes thy weak servant and one of thy sons in my cruel bondage as to men and freedom as to thee Whilest th' Authour striveth for his Countries good An under-Tyrant thirsteth for his blood His Gaoler Whi●chcock arbitrarily Heapeth upon him greater Tyranny Our deer-bought Freedom now 's not worth a straw Let all men judg when Whitchcock's will 's a Law FINIS